Courtroom 302

Prosecutor Michael Nolan encouraged the jury not to be fooled by the innocent appearance of 18-year-old Leslie McGee, who he insisted was the cold-blooded killer of 36-year-old cab driver and married father of three, Jean François. Strangely, before shooting François, who McGee claimed offered her a free cab ride in exchange for sex, McGee gave him a blessing and a kiss. Nolan agreed that François had done something wrong, but he didn’t deserve to be killed. McGee claimed that when she refused François’s offer, he slapped her and ordered her out of the cab. That was when McGee claimed she shot François. Nolan, didn’t believe this story. It seemed especially odd that, after killing François, McGee went to a lounge where she drank and played pool for several hours.

McGee was represented in the case by the flamboyant public defender from the Homicide Task Force, Marijane Placek. Placek hated to lose and didn’t mind defending the most unsavory people. Placek used McGee’s previous experience of sexual assault to claim that the young woman suffered from PTSD, which can “induce bouts of amnesia”—this, in Placek’s view, explained why McGee went to the lounge after the shooting: She had already forgotten what happened (238).